Sorry if someone's already asked these:

1) I know you have to justify using an inspiration to raise a die in your narration, but what about using an ability to raise an inspiration by one as an action? I'm finding it a little hard to figure how to narrate such a thing, especially if the inspiration is kept after being raised instead of being used that page.

2) Since inspirations belong to the player, can one be used for a character other than the one who earned it?

3) Is it a valid tactic to create a conflict you think nobody will oppose, staking, splitting, inspiring and rolling your side up, and of course easily resolving to burn debt and reap inspirations? Granted you don't get story tokens and you don't always want to lose debt, but there certainly are times when this would be beneficial. I'm a little worried about people being rewarded for creating conflicts no one else is interested in.

Thanks a lot for the game, Tony. I've just recently got a good handle on the rules and I'm gonna use it to play "Hellsing-ish Demon-Hunting in WWI." Wish me luck!

Hello,

I'm not Tony.  He can answer your questions more directly but I'm going to give an example from my own actual play that should demonstrate how a cool inspiration chain can work.

In Scene 1 I played Reverend Eden, a villain who can manipulate and create plant life; bent on bringing the garden of eden back to earth.  I attacked a church and at one point it became clear that the church was in danger of being destroyed.  So another player put down Event: The Church Survives.  Since I wasn't particularly attached to destroying the church I didn't veto but I did fight for and claim the event so that I could state the terms of its survival.  I won it for 5 points of Inspiration.

In Scene 2 I played Violet, my hero's Exemplar.  She's insane and a magician.  The scene took place at a hospital where those injured in the church attack were being rushed.  I used her Runes and Sigals abilities to raise The Church Survives Inspiration from 5 to 6.  What I narrated was that Violet touches each of the church victims and a stange mark briefly appears and then disappears.

In Scene 3 I played my hero The Raven.  He had on the table, Goal: Scare some sense into Cindy (another character's exemplar).  I then used my Inspiration from Event: The Church Survies to raise my die straight to six.  I described how I was looming over Cindy and in the back ground the moon was highlighting the cross on the steeple so that I appeared to be stepping out from a massive shadowy crusifix.

I believe this is fully legal Capes play.

Jesse

Jesse:  Legal Capes play, and cool to boot!  Not that I think that's all that big of a coincidence, of course....

MH:

#1:  That's a good question... I haven't really given any very precise terms on that, which is a gap in the game.  Whoops!  My bad.  So, to answer:  You must do something that (a) makes the past action the Inspiration is based on more of an issue in present events than it was before and (b) uses the ability that you reference prominently.  Jesse's example of Violet discovering further complications of the church-survival is perfect.

#2:  Yes, absolutely.  These are past events... what they mean and who they help is entirely a matter of player judgment.

#3:  Creating conflicts that you care about (so you can Stake) but nobody else does (so they won't oppose you) is, indeed, a very legitimate strategy.  However it can be hard to pull off against people with more than a few scenes of Capes experience.  The simple fact is, the moment you Stake Debt, people will invent a reason to oppose you.  The more debt you stake, the harder they'll compete to oppose you.  Because they want the Story Tokens that you'll be giving out.

If you can do it though (usually with the aid of distraction-conflicts and some deep understanding of your fellow players) then you cash in big-time.  One of my characters, the teen monkey-boy Zak, currently has five inspirations, each at level 6, off of a single climactic conflict ("Save the universe!") at the end of our last session.  He saved the universe... yes, with the aid of many people, but it was him.  Oh, he's going to be absolutely insufferable.

I don't understand, Tony.

In #2, you state that inspirations belong to the player rather than the character, and then in #3 you state that Zak has five inspirations.

Good catch.  I have five inspirations, which I fully intend to spend on behalf of Zak being absolutely insufferable in his arrogance over having saved the world.